What to know about the PHP bug affecting 70% of the world’s websites

October 22, 2026 / 11:11 AM EDT / CBS News

Cybersecurity researchers used an advanced OpenAI artificial intelligence model to identify a longstanding internet vulnerability before hackers could exploit it.

That security weakness affects a programming language called PHP, short for "Personal Home Page," which powers up to 70% of the world's websites and web applications, including those used by government agencies and social media platforms such as Facebook.

"PHP is everywhere — not everyone who is using it even knows that they're using it because it's this ubiquitous technology that's been baked into the internet for years and years," Wall Street Journal reporter Robert McMillan, who first reported on the PHP security issue, told CBS News. "There are a lot of sites that I don't think even know that they have a problem and they may find out the hard way."

The discovery of a major internet weakness also highlights the battle between cybersecurity experts and hackers over how to use AI to spot potential holes in organizations' technology systems. In this case, security researchers were the first to uncover the bug, which had existed for at least a decade.

"People knew something weird was going on. But no…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/